Natixis, Trafigura Trading and IBM announced that they have partnered up to deliver the first-ever blockchain-based commodity trade finance platform for the U.S. crude oil market. The new platform will allow crude oil transactions to be digitized to ensure more transparency and efficiency as well as improved security in the trade finance process. The new platform is built on the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric blockchain and will allow all stakeholders in a crude oil transaction to view and share data on the status of the transaction throughout its entire process.By using the new distributed ledger platform, crude oil trade finance industry participants will benefit from improved efficiency through lower overhead costs and few intermediaries, a reduction in cash cycle times, increased transaction transparency to reduce the potential of fraud or tampering with documents, and the ability to audit the entire transaction process through the use of shared processes and record-keeping. “We have chosen the Hyperledger Fabric but we have put on top of it our own platform/application with our industry-specific purpose (with IBM and Natixis developers),” Arnaud Stevens, Natixis’s New York Head of Global Energy & Commodities, told Bitcoin Magazine. “This prototype has been built in a robust technology environment providing security, confidentiality, auditability, reliability and scalability. And Natixis continues to test and to work on the different distributed ledger technologies (Corda, Ethereum, in addition to Hyperledger Fabric) with its own projects and with other banks (R3).”Up until now, commodity trade finance transactions have relied heavily on paper documentation, which often leads to delays and human errors and opens up the potential of fraud and lost documentation. By digitizing all involved documents, including trade documents, shipment updates and delivery and payment status, and enabling them to be stored in a shared ledger, every trade transaction can be executed in a much more efficient and transparent manner. The new distributed ledger platform used by the French bank Natixis and the commodity trading company Trafigura is hosted on IBM’s Bluemix cloud platform, which was delivered by IBM France. In the future, the platform will be expanded to enable all stakeholders in a crude oil trade finance transaction to enter data directly onto the distributed ledger, which will provide real-time status updates to all transaction participants to ensure that the transaction is processing smoothly and without the risk of fraud. Furthermore, the new trade finance platform has been designed for large-scale adoption by the entire industry via a shared permissioned ledger that all trading partners have access to. “Together with Natixis and IBM, we have analyzed the workflow of crude oil transactions in the U.S., detailing the different steps of a transaction, our interactions with the financial institutions and the documents exchanged among the various parties,” said Rodney Malcolm, CFO of Trafigura Trading North America. “The goal is to replace paper-heavy manual processes with blockchain-based workflows to improve transparency and data sharing. With the distributed ledger technology, all transaction participants in the network are updated simultaneously with a record that cannot be altered or tampered with.” Furthermore, Malcolm told Bitcoin Magazine that Trafigura was brought into the project as Natixis and IBM were already in the process of developing a blockchain solution for the oil trade and were looking for a leader in the U.S. oil trading business to be a participant in the concept trial. Stevens suggested that it may be at least another year before the technology is ready to go into production mode.“We had begun to discuss the use of blockchain [technology] with Trafigura’s peers in the U.S. as well as other commodity banks, and we see a clear interest in testing the technology,” he told Bitcoin Magazine. “We would like to get into production mode as soon as possible, but it will not be before 2018. The industry is looking for significant advancements in efficiency, transparency and security. Adoption of blockchain technology could enable faster, permissioned, immutable, transparent and auditable business-to-business interactions between companies and their business partners in the energy and commodity industry.”He added, “Blockchain [technology] is a team sport; it’s about operating a business network, and we would like to invite the key players in the commodity trading space in the U.S. to join this initiative to create an industry-specific platform. We recognize that we can’t build everything ourselves and that’s why we are open to collaborating with like-minded partners.”The post Blockchain Solutions Coming for U.S. Crude Oil Market appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Singapore-based REIDAO seeks to bring real estate investing to the masses by leveraging blockchain technology. The company uses smart contract capabilities on the Ethereum blockchain to create crypto assets backed by real estate, allowing holders to gain exposure to real estate and profit from rental income and capital appreciation of underlying properties. "We want to [offer] democratized property opportunities, to be accessible by everyone, wherever they are," Darvin Kurniawan, founder and CEO of REIDAO, told Bitcoin Magazine. The real estate market has plenty of opportunities for making big gains. However, buying and owning real estate remains complicated and is reserved for the few who can afford to enter into real estate investments. REIDAO seeks to provide solutions to the current issues and limitations and bring new investment opportunities. Kurniawan recalled his earlier days as a new graduate when he was considering investing in Singapore's booming real estate market. "I identified a few opportunities, unfortunately I couldn't enter alone — huge amount of upfront capital was needed to acquire just one property," he explained. "So back then I and a few friends tried to pool resources together, to acquire just one property. A lot of work, a lot of hassles, and especially a lot of trust. I wanted something simpler, but there just wasn't any. "I tried to solve this problem for a long time, and when blockchain technology came along with its trust-less properties, I thought 'this is it!' Now quite literally you can pool resources together with a lot of other people that you don't know to buy a single property. No trust needed among the participants." Blockchain for Real Estate Using blockchain technology to digitalize real estate ownership can transform the industry landscape, enabling a greater number of people to access real estate investing, lowering entry barriers and making the market much more liquid. Blockchains can be used to create and distribute digital tokens that represent ownership of a property. The value of a particular token would be backed with physical real estate, and these tokens would be issued to each participant and owners. In the case of REIDAO, every property listed on the platform is assigned a unique Token ID. Every Token ID has its own cap of tokens available, its own valuation based on the property that is backing it, and its own track record. "By buying and selling these tokens, people are, in a way, buying and selling fractions of the underlying property. We have created a structure including Public Trust Company to create the link between the tokens and the actual properties," said Kurniawan. Individuals that hold a certain number of tokens of a particular property are eligible for the income generated by the property. This can be rental incomes or simply capital appreciation. Kuala Lumpur Properties “REIDAO is set to launch its proof-of-concept in the second half of the year. People interested in the concept will be able to participate in a ‘crowd-buy’ for the first few properties listed on REIDAO,” Kurniawan said. The company will first begin with properties in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where real estate prices are still relatively affordable. "We have set up the necessary partnerships in Malaysia to pull this off," he indicated. In the long-term, Kurniawan envisions a "Property Tokens Exchange Board," which would be similar to a stock exchange, but for property tokens. "If anyone has extra money that they want to invest in real estate, this will be a new and simple option for them, especially with the low barrier to entry. "If you are feeling adventurous, buy a few property tokens backed by a property in Cambodia. If you are feeling cautious and want something safe, buy a few property tokens for a property in Japan. If you are feeling lucky, you can consider a few property tokens backed by a distressed property in Greece," said Kurniawan. Going further, he sees some kind of real estate investment trust but "with tokens as one of the distribution channels." "To do this, we will need to have key partnerships with established companies that are already in that industry, to extend their capabilities to include the blockchain," he said. NUS Enterprise REIDAO joined the Lean LaunchPad Program by NUS Enterprise, the entrepreneurship arm of the National University of Singapore, an opportunity for the startup to validate its proposition and turn the concept into a commercially viable product. "It is imperative for a [startup like ours] to validate what we are doing and to build something that somebody wants to use," said Kurniawan. "Even more importantly when we are deal with a new technology like blockchain." "Our target market constitutes mainstream users who might not have heard about Bitcoin, let alone the blockchain. We need to be able to really understand what they are looking for, and how we can get them to want to use the platform without much hassle." REIDAO is working with Digix Global, another Singaporean startup, to allow people to invest in its properties using gold-backed digital tokens. The company will incorporate Digix Global's DGX token as its main medium of exchange. "It is easier to tell the mainstream non-technical users that they will be buying properties using gold, and if there is any income they will also be paid in gold, rather than explaining about ether or bitcoin," said Kurniawan. REIDAO is planning an initial coin offering to raise capital to support development. A capital injection would also allow the company to start exploring other markets beyond Malaysia. "We have a few jurisdictions in mind that we can expand to, and each one will have its own local rules and regulations which needs to be iron out independently, and the cost to do that really adds up," said Kurniawan. "Before all that could happen though, we need to be able to pull off the Proof of Concept for the properties in our first jurisdiction — Malaysia. This is where 100 percent of our effort is going to right now."The post Democratizing Real Estate Investing With Blockchain Technology appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

E-government startup Neocapita is preparing to launch Stoneblock, its decentralized, blockchain-based registration service for government-managed information and citizen records. The team is currently in talks with several organizations and jurisdictions for pilot programs. Tony Willenberg, founder of Neocapita, told Bitcoin Magazine that proposals for piloting the Stoneblock platform are being discussed with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Vision, and directly with two governments, namely Afghanistan and Papua New Guinea. The proposed pilots include solutions to provide greater efficiency and transparency in aid contributions and cross-border transactions. "The main purpose behind these proposals for piloting our platform is to help developing countries move to a blockchain-based e-government application infrastructure," said Willenberg. "We are interested in helping them leapfrog." With World Vision and the Government of Afghanistan, the two proposed pilots seek to provide transparency regarding aid contribution activities. Contributions would be recorded on a blockchain and open for all donors to see. The company is also discussing a low-cost, tamper-proof registration system for land titles with the Government of Afghanistan, a project that would be similar to what Bitfury and Bitland have been doing in the Republic of Georgia and Ghana, respectively. For the Government of Papua New Guinea, Neocapita has proposed using its Stoneblock platform to record cross-border transactions, thereby providing greater transparency. Neocapita is amongst the few startups that have recently emerged to apply blockchain to e-government services. For instance, Swiss startup Procivis is developing a blockchain-powered, government-curated "app store." The platform will be designed to offer the full range of public administration services, including tax filings, land registry and commercial registry. A research paper released earlier this year by the IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) and the Economist Intelligence Unit suggests that an increasing number of governmental organizations are embracing blockchain technology. A survey of 200 government leaders in 16 countries found that nine out of ten governmental organizations plan to invest in blockchain technology for use in financial transaction management, asset management, contract management and regulatory compliance by 2018. Of the survey respondents, 14 percent expect to have blockchains in production and in use this year. "Not every technology can be moved across to a developing country context, but some can," said Willenberg. "Think of how mobile technology uptake occurred at a rate of about three times that of developed country uptake." "Our mission is to provide developing countries with an out-of-the-box solution around registering critical information in a secure, tamper-proof manner. By doing this, our logic is that we can reduce the barrier to entry, help to promote lower cost e-services, which in turn gets real services to citizens — to do more with less is what we try and help governments do." Neocapita plans to incorporate in Estonia to take advantage of the country's e-residency program. "It made sense given the type of company we are and what Estonia is world-renowned for," said Willenberg.The post Governments, NGOs Consider Neocapita’s Blockchain Pilots for E-Governance appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Blockchain technology has the potential to transform healthcare services just as it’s doing within the finance sector. Through a decentralized and encrypted network, the healthcare industry can share, store and distribute information easily and transparently, producing a streamlined system that is resistant to fraud. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in 2016, a Medicare fraud scheme cost around $30 million in losses. A report from U.S. health startup Color Space Post, a privately owned, consumer-led health company that’s leveraging blockchain technology to develop a new healthcare infrastructure, states that “blockchain technology could make a massive impact on both the administration costs and fraud.”And yet, even though it’s still in its infancy within the healthcare industry, blockchain technology is already helping to transform it.Healthcoin: The First Blockchain-Based, Globally Scalable Platform for Rewarding PreventionFounded in 2016 by CEO Diego Espinosa and COO Nick Gogerty, Healthcoin, which won the award for best private blockchain at this month’s CoinAgenda in Puerto Rico, utilizes blockchain technology to allow employers, insurers, individuals and governments across the globe to manage people’s lifestyle change and incentivize the prevention of adult onset diabetes. According to the American Diabetes Association, latest figures show that in 2012, approximately 29.1 million Americans, or 9.3 percent of the population, had diabetes.Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, Espinosa said that Healthcoin originated when he reversed his borderline Type 2 diabetes. Despite living a healthy lifestyle — a low-fat diet and running 25 miles per week — he found his A1c kept going up. This is a blood test, also known as hemoglobin A1c or glycohemoglobin test, that provides information on a person’s average levels of blood glucose. A normal A1c level is less than 5.7 percent. Espinosa said that after deciding to experiment with a low carb and no sugar diet, he found his biomarkers went back to normal, which helped plant the seed for Healthcoin.“When I saw my blood labs, the idea for Healthcoin was born: shifting the focus of prevention to ‘moving the needle’ on biomarkers as opposed to just measuring steps and other ‘inputs,’” he said.Still in its pre-launch, Healthcoin will work by tokenizing measurable improvements in health. Espinosa says that users will submit their information through their doctor, employer, insurer biometric screening program or even health apps. As it is biomarker-based, Healthcoin takes in information relating to A1c, blood pressure and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which are precursors to Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.“When a user’s biomarkers improve, the blockchain issues them a token,” said Espinosa. “This token is equivalent to a ‘certificate of proven prevention.’”By building a plug-and-play rewards and data analytics layer for prevention, Healthcoin is aiming to create a network that engages every level, from users to doctors and international health organizations to governments. Through blockchain technology, the network trades in a market for rewarding proven prevention readily, verifying when someone has prevented their disease over their lifetime.Once launched, Espinosa says that employers and insurance companies can offer to pay users a pre-set reward for the tokens while the underlying biomarker database can be mined by the pharmaceutical industry to help in drug discovery.“Healthcoin will shift the focus of healthcare to generating proven prevention outcomes,” he adds. “The goal is to have millions of people generating healthcoins across the globe and thus turn the tide on the diabetes epidemic.”DeepMind Health: Bitcoin-Style Verifiable Data AuditLondon-based DeepMind Health is planning to build out a new technology. Loosely sharing some of the same properties as blockchain technology, it is designing a system to track patients’ records in real-time, allowing clinicians to predict, diagnose and prevent serious illnesses.Identified as the Verifiable Data Audit, the idea is to develop a digital ledger that will record what data has been used with DeepMind, claiming that the hospital remains in control.According to the NHS Confederation, every 36 hours the U.K.’s National Health Service (NHS) deals with over one million patients. However, a report from the U.K.’s Daily Mail newspaper states that in 2016, over 205,000 medication errors were made in the prescribing, dispensing or administering of drugs throughout the NHS, and that medication errors are increasing by 6 percent a year.DeepMind Health, which is collaborating with the London’s Royal Free Hospital, has created a kidney monitoring app. Called Streams, it is a clinical application that aims to improve care, directing clinicians to patients who are at risk of or have a serious condition of acute kidney injury (AKI).In a blog post, DeepMind Co-Founder Mustafa Suleyman and Head of Security and Transparency Ben Laurie cite an example focusing on the Royal Free Hospital partnership to explain how the Verifiable Data Audit will work each time there has been any interaction with the data.“Each time there’s any interaction with data, we’ll begin to add an entry to a special digital ledger. That entry will record the fact that a particular piece of data has been used, and also the reason why — for example, that blood test data was checked against the NHS national algorithm to detect possible acute kidney injury.”They add that like blockchains the ledger will be append-only so that once a record of data use has been added, it can’t be removed. It will also ensure that third parties can determine whether entries have been tampered with.However, it also differs from blockchains. According to Suleyman and Laurie, blockchain technology has some wastefulness associated with it, such as that most blockchains require participants to carry out complex calculations that involve high energy costs. Some estimates state that the energy used could be as much as the power consumption of Cyprus.“This isn’t necessary when it comes to the health service, because we already have trusted institutions like hospitals or national bodies [that] can be relied on to verify the integrity of ledgers, avoiding some of the wastefulness of blockchain [technology],” they add.DeepMind is also changing the “chain” part of blockchain technology and replacing it with a tree-like structure known as a Merkle tree or hash tree. Every time an entry is added to the ledger, it will produce a value known as a cryptographic hash, which recaps all entries made in the audit.“Now we have an improved version of the humble audit log: a fully trustworthy, efficient ledger that we know captures all interactions with data, and which can be validated by a reputable third party in the healthcare community.”In the long-term, the team is hoping to expand the system to individual patients or patient groups so that they can view how and where their data is being used.The post Blockchain-Styled Solutions for Health Care on the Rise appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Tokenization is the process of converting rights to an asset into a digital token on a blockchain. There is great interest by financial intermediaries and technologists around the world in figuring out how to move real-world assets onto blockchains to gain the advantages of Bitcoin while keeping the characteristics of the asset. Why Tokenize “Real World” Assets?Our world is full of assets: stocks, real estate, gold, carbon credits, oil, etc. Many of these assets are difficult to physically transfer or subdivide, so buyers and sellers instead trade paper that represents some or all of the asset. But paper and complex legal agreements are cumbersome, difficult to transfer and can be hard to track. One solution would be to switch to a digital system along the lines of Bitcoin but linked to an asset. Commodity exchanges have largely done away with physical paper by substituting electronic transactions and standardized agreements, but the overhead of these systems is enormous and they generally rely on trusted participants. Startups and major financial companies around the world are now racing to develop systems for the next phase of this evolution: tokenizing assets. But why would someone want a digital token that represents a physical asset and how can that be done? Imagine Jane is a diamond wholesaler who owns $15 million of diamonds. Diamonds are difficult to transfer to buyers because they require security and careful inspection to ensure that a fake isn’t introduced somewhere in the supply chain. Joe would like to invest a few thousand dollars in diamonds but doesn’t want to deal with the hassle of physically receiving them. and in any event, Joe would ideally like to own a small piece of many diamonds to diversify his diamond position, since diamonds come in a variety of grades and cuts, and demand changes over time for each type. It’s not worth Jane’s time to find Joe and sell him a couple diamonds; she just wants an easy way to subdivide her diamond stock and sell fractional pieces of it to a variety of people. Joe wants to be able to easily trade his fractional ownership to other people (rather than just with Jane). This ability to make all parties happy in such a scenario is the promise of blockchain tokens that represent real-world assets and an opportunity to democratize ownership of interesting asset classes. There are many proposed methods for taking real-world assets and “putting them on a blockchain.” The goal is to achieve the security, speed and ease of transfer of Bitcoin, combined with real-world assets. This is a new form of an old concept: “securitization” (turning a set of assets into a security), and in some cases the tokenization is of securitized assets. The rest of this article explores the types of assets that can be put on blockchains and some of the models being piloted by startups, financial intermediaries and governments.Intangible AssetsMany assets are what lawyers refer to as “intangible.” They exist only due to the operation of law and there is no physical object. Examples of intangible assets include patents, carbon credits, brand names, copyrights, etc. Intangible assets, lacking a physical form, may be easier to combine with digital blockchain-based systems.The challenge with intangible assets is ensuring that the blockchain system’s model of asset transfer lines up with the real-world legal model of transfer. There may also be jurisdictional differences that can make transfers difficult (although similar, copyright laws differ around the world). That said, intangible assets are often easier to tokenize than physical objects because there are fewer concerns regarding storage and shipment. Fungible AssetsLawyers make a distinction between assets that are fungible and those that are not. A fungible item is one that can be replaced by another identical item. Think wheat, gold or water. Fungible assets are much easier to convert to tokens because they can generally be broken down into smaller units (like bitcoin), and a token can stand for a group of objects (e.g., a pile of gold) rather than a set of individual objects (e.g., a warehouse full of unique works of art).Assets that aren’t fungible require an abstraction layer in order to tokenize. For example, a company that will group the assets together and offer them as a package. This is the method used for securitizing mortgages, whereby a set of mortgages that have unique characteristics are bundled together into a group of mortgages with approximately similar characteristics. Fungible assets are typically easier to tokenize because the general set of tokens are linked to a general set of interchangeable asset components (e.g. 10kg of gold). Transfers of Ownership vs. Transfer of Limited RightsThere are many kinds of transfers of assets and many types of asset rights. Sometimes only limited rights connected to an asset are transferred, such as a lease to use land for a limited time rather than a transfer of land ownership. Thousands of years of property ownership has led to a wide variety of types of ownership and control such as holding property on behalf of another person (“bailment”). The details depend on the jurisdiction, type of law (common law vs. civil law), asset, and the rights intended to be transferred. Some intangible assets can be licensed out to millions of people at once, such as music rights. When a customer “buys” a song from iTunes, they’re not gaining ownership over the song (a change in ownership), they’re purchasing the right, a license, to listen to the music under certain conditions. Blockchain projects can generally be divided into those that involve tokenizing partial rights, like music licensing, and those that involve tokenizing full ownership, e.g. selling real estate.The Key Legal Issue: Ensuring Token Consistency In a digital system like Bitcoin there is always consistency. Transactions obey the rules of the software and there are no exceptions. In the real world, there are often exceptions. Gold bars are stolen, houses burn down, music samples turn out not to be properly licensed, diamonds fail to be delivered — humans sometimes don’t obey the rules. Therefore the key challenge for any system that involves tokenizing real-world assets is to ensure that the digital token stays linked to the real-world asset.Imagine a token that represents a fractional interest in a set of gold bars in a vault. If a gold bar is taken from the vault, how will that be reflected in the digital token? Who will make sure that the token value stays linked to the gold bars that should be in the vault, rather than the gold bars that are in the vault? Who will bear the risk and how? If the buyer of a token can’t be sure that the token is properly linked to the real-world asset, then the value of the token will fall or become zero (if no one has faith in it).Legal Models1. Licensing Music licensing relies heavily on paperwork and trust. Musicians hope that sales of their music and merchandise are properly calculated and reported to them. As streaming and digital downloads eliminate physical sales of media containing songs, the music would appear to be a great candidate for tokenization. If music ownership was represented on a blockchain, the many participants in creating the music could have their shares set electronically. The dream would be to have every listen of their music require “unlocking” and payment, with payment then being distributed to the appropriate holders. The holders could then transfer their interest in the music (e.g., if the drummer wants to convert their ownership to a down payment on a house) to someone else, who would then receive the payment stream. More accurate reporting would be a benefit to everyone, but there are other changes that tokenization could trigger. Tokenization of music ownership could allow new business models such as investing in music creation by the public. If a new band could sell 20 percent of their new song to fans, what would that do to the creation of music? How would that affect intermediaries?An example of music ownership/licensing tokenization is SingularDTV. 2. Trading Systems Imagine a group of companies that want to trade oil with one another. Normally they’d exchange paperwork and keep their own lists of trades. If they could move to a blockchain-based system for trading their oil, they could potentially reduce paperwork and have more robust record-keeping. There are many consortiums sprouting up that aim to replace paper trading systems with blockchain trading systems. They generally don’t aim to tokenize real-world assets directly, but rather to use a blockchain system to enable trading of real-world assets. This is a hybrid of the old paper record approach and the new blockchain approach. The tokens only have value within the context of a contractual system involving all of the past and future participants.An example of this form of tokenization is the IBM-Natixis-Trafigura oil trading project. There are also tokenization schemes that involve limited use of property enforced by digital locks, such as Slock.it. 3. Redemption Imagine an art print by a famous artist with 1000 prints. The art prints could be tokenized by having ownership held by a company that has a standing offer to the public to redeem tokens for either a single art print or, if the redeemed tokens are less than a certain threshold, a fraction of the assessed value of the art print. Physical delivery of the prints could be made at a certain location or shipped to a specified address. In this way, buyers could obtain an easy-to-transfer token and third-party markets could transact in fractions of the art prints. This could potentially be a source of financing for the artist and a way for the broader public to participate in the art market. The above model relies on the company holding the art to continue to offer redemptions. An obvious risk for token holders is that the company will no longer honor its commitment to exchanging the digital tokens for the real-world goods in its possession. Another issue would be how the company holding the artwork will be compensated for storage costs. An example of this model in action for foreign currencies is Tether, although note that section 3 of the terms of service indicates that redemption is not guaranteed. 4. Vaults & Smart Contracts Imagine a vault of gold. The gold is owned by “Goldowner Inc.” and the vault is owned by “Vault Inc.” Vault Inc. has a sterling reputation and third-party auditors who verify the amount of gold in its vault. Goldowner Inc. could offer a digital token to the public that represents ownership of the gold and through a smart contract with Vault Inc. maintain a public off-chain registry that relates fractional interest in the gold with the tokens. For every token sold, Goldowner Inc. transfers ownership to Vault Inc., who holds it on behalf of the token owner. Vault Inc. guarantees redemption of gold by anyone who can prove ownership through a digital signature. Goldowner Inc. can take advantage of the fact that Vault Inc. is trusted (and audited). Owners of the tokens rely on Vault Inc.’s representations and not on Goldowner Inc. (even though Goldowner Inc. is the token issuer). Obviously there are many risks in the above example that wouldn’t exist if the gold was a digital item that could be transferred electronically. Gold has a physical embodiment that requires physical storage (which also costs money). So why tokenize the gold? One advantage would be that buyers of the tokens could know that they are the only person who has received the token, whereas a buyer of a paper certificate has no way of knowing that the same certificate hasn’t been sold to multiple people. Two examples of gold tokenization startups are Vaultoro and Orebits. There are also many related projects that seek to use digital tokens to track real-world items moving through supply chains, where the token is used for provenance rather than value. Intersection With Global Securities LawsSelling a fractional interest in an asset to the public (without permission from the government) is often prohibited by securities laws. Given the global-by-default nature of blockchains, this can pose a problem for the entities involved in the tokenization, or the operators of marketplaces where these tokens are traded. These issues are particularly complicated because they often involve overlapping jurisdictions (e.g., a Chinese seller and American buyer). Digital tokens are linked to real-world assets and ultimately involve a real-world entity that has value and can be tracked down by the relevant regulator. This makes it harder to avoid regulation than a platform that is pitched as purely software, or that involves peer-to-peer activities (think BitTorrent vs. a store selling pirated movies). Some forward-thinking regulators are contemplating legal changes that will enable asset transfers to be accomplished through digital token transfers. The U.S. State of Delaware has already begun legislative efforts to enable companies to use blockchains for their books and records regarding shareholders. These efforts are part of a move away from the complicated indirect securities ownership scheme in the United States that requires intermediaries. The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the largest U.S. intermediary, currently has custody of over $37 trillion worth of shares.For an example of the failings of the current indirect ownership system for shares, see last month’s Delaware Court of Chancery decision: In Re: Dole Foods Company, Inc., C.A. No. 8703-VCL. For an interesting look at the challenges involved in debt markets, see the 2014 New York Times Magazine article “Paper Boys.”The Centralization IssueOne of the main advantages to Bitcoin over non-blockchain systems is that it’s decentralized. But real-world assets generally have a single owner, or a small group of owners. Many of the models for asset-backed tokens involve an open offer for redemption by a company that holds the real-world asset. The entire token can fail if the central asset holder fails. The challenge for any tokenization scheme is how to connect the single owner of the real-world asset with the many owners of the token. How can the risk of centralization be mitigated? The answer is typically a combination of clever digital token schemes, contracts, insurance, auditing and third-party guarantees. One answer to the problem of centralization is to rely on a centralized party that has trust because it is the relevant government authority that decides who owns what. Sweden’s land registry system has been piloting a blockchain-based property transfer system. Britain’s Royal Mint is also pursuing a digital token plan that relies on its status as a trusted central party.Legal Changes Needed?It will not be possible to move some types of physical assets onto blockchains until statutory changes enable digital transfers. In some countries there are legal rules in place that require transfers to take place using a certain form or be registered in a certain way with the government authority that is not amenable to a token-based system. For example, secured lending laws may give priority ownership to a person who lends money and registers that interest over someone who possesses a token indicating ownership. Tokenizing real-world assets is a challenging problem that requires innovative solutions that go beyond technology. In some cases this will require legal reform, and in other cases it will involve clever combinations of existing legal rules, new business structures and new digital token systems.This guest post was contributed by Addison Cameron-Huff. The views expressed are his own and do not necessarily represent those of Bitcoin Magazine.The post Op Ed: How Tokenization Is Putting Real-World Assets on Blockchains appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

-Stephanie is a professional female voice talent with over seven years of experience in the industry, having voiced hundreds of projects ?'“ from tech explainer videos to medical e-learning to radio and TV advertisements. Stephanie is a top-ranked talent on Voices.com and her previous clients have included many major national brands.

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Demand for bitcoin is growing in Europe’s 12th largest country and so is its bitcoin ecosystem. According to data collected by Coin Dance, trading volumes at peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange LocalBitcoins have increased substantially in Romania in the last 18 months.LocalBitcoins, however, is not the only bitcoin exchange that has witnessed a surge in demand. Local Romanian digital currency exchange CoinFlux has recently announced that $23.8 million (100 million RON) worth of digital currency has been traded on its exchange since the company’s inception in December 2015.CoinFlux was founded by former fund manager Vlad Nistor. It enables Romanians to buy and sell bitcoin, ether, litecoin and ethereum classic for the Romanian leu and the euro. While several altcoins are on offer, most of CoinFlux’s trading volumes are centered around bitcoin and ether.“Most of our transactions in the last quarter involved bitcoin (89 percent), but we have witnessed an increase in interest in other currencies, especially ether,” Nistor stated.Looking forward, Nistor told Bitcoin Magazine: “Until now, we have been focused on our core market in Romania. We have joined one of the best accelerator programmes in Romania, MVP Academy, with the aim of receiving support as we develop our strategy to expand our services into other European Union countries.”Nistor said that the current stance of Romania’s regulators toward bitcoin and digital currencies is one of caution. “The Romanian National Bank is reserved about bitcoin, as is the European Central Bank. I think this is the reasonable position to take as the only monetary issuing authority in the country. They've issued several statements warning users about digital currencies, also stating that they will not permit risky products that could undermine consumer protection or the banking sector.”As the demand for bitcoin is growing in Romania, so is the country’s bitcoin ecosystem. On March 24, 2017, Bitcoin Romania, a bitcoin exchange and bitcoin ATM network operator, announced that it is partnering with local money transfer operator Smith & Smith to offer bitcoin purchases at 70 physical locations throughout the country. The new service will allow bitcoin users to deposit or withdraw cash in exchange for bitcoins without needing to attach their bank accounts to Bitcoin Romania’s online trading platform.“Ever since we launched, we wanted to make bitcoin trading easy, both in term of processing time and in terms of proximity to customers," said George Rotariu, CEO of Bitcoin Romania. "We are happy that we can improve our online platform services and, besides existing options like instant bank transfers and our country-wide ATMs and terminals network, we added instant cash and withdrawals through our partners Smith & Smith. We are counting on the experience and safety offered by Smith & Smith and we are sure that this collaboration will be successful both for us and especially for our customers.”“The locations of Smith & Smith agencies make it possible for all the users from all over the country to successfully finalize their trading actions. Given the fact that these agencies are located in over 60 towns, we offer our customers the possibility to easily [access] one of these locations.”As Romania’s tech startup scene is growing, so are its entrepreneurs’ activities in the Bitcoin space. Aside from Bitcoin Romania and CoinFlux, other notable startups that are working on bringing bitcoin to Romania include mobile bitcoin wallet Coinfetti and bitcoin exchanges BitcoinxRomania and BtcXchange.The post Bitcoin is on the Rise in Romania appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Hello, welcome to episode 43 of The Bitcoin Game, I'm Rob Mitchell. This is part two of my interview with Riccardo "FluffyPony" Spagni of Monero. In part one, we focused on Riccardo's past and the early days of Monero. In today's episode, Riccardo gives his views on topics like Ethereum, Proof of Work, Monero's regular hard forks, Barry Silbert's love of Ethereum Classic, tinfoil hat theories about Gavin Andresen, Riccardo's CEO title, and much more.

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While much of Bitcoiners' time is spent in the world of digital assets, sometimes it's nice to own a physical representation of the virtual things you care about. For just the price of a cup of coffee or two (at Starbucks), you can own your own Bitcoin Keychain or the newer Bitcoin Fork Pen.

In the world of Bitcoin podcast, there is one show which definitely stands out as the longest running, Let's Talk Bitcoin! In its 4-year history, the show has produced over 320 episodes and expanded to become a network of podcasts which includes Epicenter and many others.

We're joined by Adam B. Levine the founder and host of Let's Talk Bitcoin! It was thanks to Adam that S?ƒbastien and Brian first connected in 2013, so in many ways, we consider him as the "spiritual grandfather" of Epicenter. Adam reflects on his signature show and the network he created in 2014. He discusses the future of the network and makes an announcement live on the show, which even takes us by surprise.

Topics discussed in this episode:

The history of the Let's Talk Bitcoin! podcast

What listeners can expect for the future of the show

The LTB Coin reward token experiment, what was learned and the future of that project

The Let's Talk Bitcoin! Network and how it's evolving

The Tokenly project and its use cases

Token.fm: a platform for music creators to sell licences to their music as tokens

Today we hear first from Joe Reed who won the Seattle IPFS / Ethereum Hackathon in February. His entry Matriarch expands on the ERC20 compliant MiniMe token, using it as a basis for crowdfunded MeDAOs. It?'?s an avant-garde idea and compliments his decentralized reddit project, Community.

Then Gabriel Mitchell of ethereumclothing.com raises the subject of branding in cryptocurrency. These interviews have been buried in my content bank for months now and it?'?s fun to sometimes unearth gems. Short interviews with people from the Ethereum community are great in that they yield insights that would not otherwise percolate to the surface of popular discourse. Also, it?'?s fun to plug community merch while having a productive conversation.

April 2016 saw a flurry of media attention around the first ever blockchain-managed energy transaction in Brooklyn, NY. In this groundbreaking milestone, the owner of a roof solar panel sold a few kilowatt-hours of excess energy to a neighbor utilizing an Ethereum blockchain smart contract. Fueling this development via the Brooklyn microgrid was the startup company LO3 Energy. Today power and utility companies all over the world are now exploring various ways to implement blockchain technology. Doing so could upend existing models of how energy and utility markets function. Applied on a broader scale, it could be the spark that transforms these legacy industries. So what sort of problems is blockchain technology expected to address in this space? For starters, the technology is seen as a means of overcoming some of the entry barriers that restrict the delivery of electricity to more customers. Here the blockchain infrastructure could foster a more open and transparent mechanism for codifying transactions in the energy realm involving both generation and consumption. Second, blockchain technology can provide companies in these industries with a more efficient way to record and process data, potentially leading to a more synchronized global distribution of energy. Customers would also be afforded a more streamlined and accurate experience in terms of managing their bills and access to the activity taking place on their accounts. Third, the archaic and costly function of meter reading could effectively be eliminated while at the same time boosting the accuracy of bills. Finally, blockchain integration can provide a more effective system for assessing energy sources and determining how that affects the pricing passed on to the consumer. Better technology tools provide more accurate energy utilization and service data, ultimately leading to better outcomes for the end customer. The broader implications of this would include increased industry competition leading to lower prices, streamlined energy distribution, reduced energy waste and better relationships between utility companies and their customers. For a deeper perspective on blockchain technology’s emerging impact on the power, utilities and energy markets, Bitcoin Magazine turned to Thierry Mortier, Global Leader of Technology and Innovation for Power and Utilities at Ernst & Young (EY). Mortier says that the power sector is in the midst of shifting from a centralized model to a more distributed model. He believes that in the future new digital peer-to-peer platforms will emerge to eliminate the middleman and seamlessly connect energy producers directly with the end power user. “Blockchain technology will help facilitate this process by allowing transactions to be recorded between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and permanent way. It can also be programmed to trigger transactions automatically. The technology promises to radically speed up transactions and cut costs by establishing trust and the transfer of value without the involvement of traditional intermediaries.” Mortier goes on to note that, aside from some early demonstrations, the applicability of an energy blockchain is still largely theoretical. He points to how blockchain enthusiasts are drawn in by the growing complex web of transactions, the need to balance the geographical mismatch between supply and demand, and significant security and trust concerns given the proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) connected devices. Says Mortier: “Over 200 blockchain use cases have been identified already. Most pilots are still in early stages across the energy value chain, primarily in the area of peer-to-peer energy trading. EY is working with companies in the power and utilities sector to develop use cases and prototypes.” In addition to the aforementioned April 2016 development, where residents in Brooklyn, New York, successfully traded renewable energy using a smart contract on the public Ethereum blockchain platform, he says that in Australia, several pilots are under way, allowing residents in Perth and South Western Australia to buy, sell or swap excess solar energy with anyone connected to the Western Power network. Furthermore, he says that Germany, with Berlin as the global hub of the technology, has a strong presence, as does the U.K., building on the early investment of the financial services sector in the technology. “Blockchain maturity seems to be driven by company ambition rather than any national advantage at this stage,” says Mortier. He is especially excited about the emergence of pre-programmed “smart contracts” that can trigger transactions automatically. “These smart contracts, for example, can be set to allow prosumers to feed surplus energy into the grid through a blockchain-enabled meter. The flow of electricity is automatically coded into the blockchain, and algorithms match buyers and sellers in real time based on preferences. Smart contracts then execute when electricity is delivered, triggering payment from buyer to seller. Removing financial transactions and the execution of contractual commitments from central control brings a whole new level of decentralization and transparency that the industry has never had before.” Mortier also touts the rapidly growing prominence of energy trading, an area he says appears to be moving toward a commercial solution more quickly than many of the others. In conclusion, Mortier says that there has been significant interest in tracking and tracing resource types (green gas, for example) and in the peer-to-peer, prosumer-led trading. But, outside of Bitcoin applications, he laments that there is a lack of proven use cases, with difficulties involving security, scalability and frequency of transactions as factors that need to be overcome. “In three to five years’ time, it is quite possible that blockchain [technology] will radically change the way parts of the power industry operate. To get there, blockchain [technology] must overcome competition from existing solutions and prove its attractiveness to users. Only if its applications have tangible, monetary or timely advantages will blockchain [technology] be able convince enough participants to ditch their legacy systems for this new platform.”The post How Blockchain Tech Will Create a Distributed Future for the Energy Sector appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.